Preface to Natural Gas Liquids A Nontechnical Guide

The first textbook ever, written by Peter Lombard, was published in 1158. In all the years that have followed, incredibly enough, no one has put a pen to paper to create another textbook explaining natural gas liquids (NGLs) in a simple way.

This work corrects that incomprehensible void. Just a few decades ago, most engineers and business people who managed and operated NGLs inhabited offices that were situated in the back corridors of oil companies’ offices or in obscure buildings out in the oil patch.

Their more senior executives thought of their commodities as necessary but ancillary operations to the much larger oil and gas businesses. In more recent decades, three waves of change rolled in to alter most of that:

The emergent and re-emergent growth of the petrochemicals industry, which provided excellent feedstock opportunities for NGLs.

The appearance of dynamic and entrepreneurial midstream companies whose primary business is gas plants, pipelines, storage, and any other logistical matter. Exploration and production companies were happy to outsource their midstream worries to them.

The burgeoning supply of NGLs, especially from shale gas exploitation.

So today, numerous enterprises populate the value chain from the subsurface reservoir to the consumer. To deal with that, I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to tap into people with many different areas of expertise.

In particular, I want to thank Dr. Shu Luo, Dr. Donald L, Burdick, Martin S. Raymond, Joel Sopchak, Josh Kasprzak, Gary Hunter, Michael Tusiani, and Robert R. Petrie. They all helped refine the ideas and words I have used to explain the NGL business in terms that are as nontechnical as possible.

Still, they have no responsibility and get no reward (other than their name in print) for the integrity of anything in this book. I get both. Not every chapter in this book will appeal to someone looking for a better understanding of NGLs.

Certainly, the introduction and discussion of the value chain in chapter 1 and the history of the NGL business in chapter 2 should appeal to all. The science and engineering of the upstream in chapter 3 might be a dauntingly deeper background (pun intended) than some want.

As technical as the chemistry and physics of NGLs is in chapter 4, it discusses a promisingly important foundation of the business and should not be missed. So today, numerous enterprises populate the value chain from the subsurface reservoir to the consumer.

To deal with that, I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to tap into people with many different areas of expertise. In particular, I want to thank Dr. Shu Luo, Dr. Donald L, Burdick, Martin S. Raymond, Joel Sopchak, Josh Kasprzak, Gary Hunter, Michael Tusiani, and Robert R. Petrie.

They all helped refine the ideas and words I have used to explain the NGL business in terms that are as nontechnical as possible. Still, they have no responsibility and get no reward (other than their name in print) for the integrity of anything in this book.

I get both. Not every chapter in this book will appeal to someone looking for a better understanding of NGLs. Certainly, the introduction and discussion of the value chain in chapter 1 and the history of the NGL business in chapter 2 should appeal to all.

The science and engineering of the upstream in chapter 3 might be a dauntingly deeper background (pun intended) than some want. As technical as the chemistry and physics of NGLs is in chapter 4, it discusses a promisingly important foundation of the business and should not be missed.

Foreword to Natural Gas Liquids A Nontechnical Guide

Natural gas liquids have always occupied odd corners of the oil and gas industry. They didn’t fit easily into the upstream or the downstream.

And they still don’t. That’s why a good treatment of this obscure set of commodities demands someone who has worked in all parts of the value chain—E&P, refining, marketing, and petrochemicals.

That person is Bill Leffler, who spent 36 years at Shell in all these sectors, even as Gas Liquids Business Manager for years. I worked with Bill for many years. I can think of no one better to translate the complexities of natural gas liquids into a more easily understandable subject.

I recommend this book from front to back if you want to understand how ethane, propane, butane, and natural gasoline touch all parts of our business in a profound and sometimes subtle way.